Two years after the start of the commitment to support vaccination against the Covid19 in areas of humanitarian emergency, the NGO Intersos file a report”Covid19 vaccination campaign: lessons learned are recommendations” to review the results achieved and share lessons learned and recommendations for the future of the vaccination campaign.
In early 2021, to contribute to the global response to the pandemic and help address inequalities in the distribution of vaccines against Covid-19, Intersos set up a task force to support the initiative Covax to ensure vaccination in developing countries.
Intersos concentrated its intervention in two protracted crisis scenarios in which the organization was already present: Borno State in Nigeria and South Yemen, areas characterized by war, violence, extreme poverty and natural disasters, and with a high number of people in need of help. Since mid-2021 Intersos, collaborating with the Ministry of Health and local authorities, has worked on several fronts, with the aim of strengthening the local health system and extending the vaccination campaign to the entire population, including the most marginalized groups such as refugees and displaced in refugee camps.
Thanks to the involvement of community leaders and volunteers, information activities on the efficacy and availability of the vaccine against Covid19 have contributed to the ever-increasing influx of people to vaccination centers, while the donation of materials and machinery for transport and maintenance of vaccines (cold chain) has allowed the strengthening of health structures heavily affected by the pandemic. Training activities were organized to train the medical, socio-medical and logistical staff on vaccination, on the management of cases of adverse reactions and on the management of the cold chain relating to the different vaccine products, maintenance of donated machinery: the goal was not only to deal with today’s emergency, but to create common practices, knowledge and awareness also for future emergencies.
In terms of vaccine administration, the results were particularly significant in Borno State, where between August 2021 and February 2023, 382,637 doses were administered with 255,071 people fully vaccinated, 8% of the state total, many of them in areas of difficult to access due to the ongoing conflict. In Yemen, the absolute numbers are even lower, with 14,392 people vaccinated in Lahij Governorate in November 2022, but Intersos has contributed significantly to the difficult start of the vaccination campaign. In both contexts Intersos has achieved more than 100% of the expected target.
Thanks to the experience gained in the field, the Intersos report focuses on the lessons learned and on the recommendations to be shared with the international humanitarian community, indicating 6 decisive challenges for the future:
1. The strengthening of the health systems of the most fragile countries, moving from a vertical approach to the vaccination campaign to a horizontal and integrated approach in the overall offer of primary health services.
2. The availability of adequately trained healthcare personnel to be guaranteed, even in crisis areas, through programs of recruitment, training and retention of staff through incentives.
3. Rapid, flexible and linear access to international funds to allow actors on the ground to act promptly and effectively.
4. Investment in widespread communication and information activities and tools, starting from the centrality of community involvement activities as an indispensable condition for the success of vaccination campaigns.
5. The collection, management and sharing of updated and integrated data, also through the experimentation of new technologies.
6. The implementation, with adequate resources, of a global epidemic surveillance system as a central element of a Global Agenda for Health Security.